Please welcome author Michelle Diener to Passages to the Past! Michelle is here as part of her virtual tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for The Emperor's Conspiracy and she was kind enough to answer a few questions for me! Be sure to check out the schedule of stops for her virtual tour below, as well as enter to win a copy of The Emperor's Conspiracy!

What was the inspiration behind writing The Emperor’s Conspiracy? And what drew you to set it in Regency London?

I really find it hard to nail down a favorite historical period, because I love so many, but the characters for this story, specifically Charlotte, arrived in my mind complete with setting, and the very real plot by Napoleon wormed its way into the story, so that defined the actual date of 1811. As for insprication, I started out writing The Emperor's Conspiracy more than five years ago, and in those early days it was much more light-hearted. As I researched the life of a London sweep and a child labourer, I realized the whole story would have to be grittier and darker, and I mulled things over for years before actually rewriting what little I had already written, and finishing the story.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? And why historical fiction?

I've always wanted to be a writer. I love reading, I love books, but I always wanted more stories, and I wanted the stories to go a specific way. I didn't always agree with the author. LOL. What choice did I have but to write stories of my own? If I can keep someone up late, transport them away to another world, just like I do when I'm reading a wonderful book, then I consider myself sucessful. As for historical fiction, well, I love history. I absolutely love it. I studied it at high school and university, and read all historical non-fiction I can find. But I have to admit I love fantasy and sci-fi, too. And you may be seeing some books from me in those genres in a year or so. :) But I'll never not write historical fiction. I have way too many historical fiction stories in me for that to ever happen.

Can you take us through a day in your life while you are writing a novel?

I get up and get the kids ready for school, then I walk them over, and keep going on my walking route, which is roughly 5 kms. Then I get home and shower, and then if I'm not expecting any urgent email, I go straight to writing for a couple of hours. I do some chores, open up my email, and attend to the other business of being a writer that isn't writing, then try to fit in another couple of hours of writing before I fetch the kids and take them off to their after-school activities, homework, etc. At night, if I have the energy, I'll try to write for another hour when the kids are in bed.

What authors inspire you?

Oh, so many! My critique partners, Liz Kreger and Edie Ramer, inspire me for their dedication to their craft, their perseverance and their generosity of spirit. Authors such as Jayne Anne Krentz, Dick Francis, Terry Pratchett, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, Iain M. Banks, Agatha Christie, Mary Stewart, Patricia Briggs, Sulman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood inspire me with their consistent excellence and ability to totally lose me in their worlds. And they are just the ones that leapt into my mind this minute, I'm sure there are plenty I'll think of later.

What book would you like to read again for the first time?

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks. It has such a twist at the end, any re-reading you do, you can't help but read in the light of that final revelation, which changes the way you see so many characters. So you can never re-read with the same sense of discovery.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Understand that it is hard. It is supposed to be hard. And when you've finished something, I highly recommend leaving it for at least a month, before taking it out and doing a final edit. You won't regret it!

What project on you working on next?

I just finished a book that is a sequel to The Emperor's Conspiracy, tentatively entitled Banquet of Lies. Charlotte and Edward are secondary characters in this book, but it stands on its own, like The Emperor's Conspiracy. To give myself a break, I'm working on writing a full length novel inspired by my short story contribution to the Entangled Anthology. Breaking Out, my contemporary paranormal contribution, has resulted in a barrage of emails from readers asking me to continue the story. I'm obliging. I will probably put a book together which includes Breaking Out as the first four chapters, and carries on from there.

About the Book

Publication Date: November 27, 2012Gallery Books336p{SYNOPSIS}From nineteenth-century London’s elegant ballrooms to its darkest slums, a spirited young woman and a nobleman investigating for the Crown unmask a plot by Napoleon to bleed England of its gold.

Chance led to Charlotte Raven’s transformation from chimney sweep to wealthy, educated noblewoman, but she still walks a delicate tightrope between two worlds, unable to turn her back on the ruthless crime lord who was once her childhood protector.

When Lord Edward Durnham is tapped to solve the mystery of England’s rapidly disappearing gold, his search leads him to the stews of London, and Charlotte becomes his intriguing guide to the city’s dark, forbidding underworld. But as her involvement brings Charlotte to the attention of men who have no qualms about who they hurt, and as Edward forges a grudging alliance with the dangerous ghosts of Charlotte’s former life, she faces a choice: to continue living in limbo, or to close the door on the past and risk her heart and her happiness on an unpredictable future.About the Author

Michelle Diener has always had a passion for reading and writing. She began writing stories when her parents gave her a typewriter for her twelfth birthday, and she hasn’t stopped since. Born in London and raised in South Africa, she now lives on the west coast of Australia with her husband and two small children. She is the author of Dangerous Sanctuary, In a Treacherous Court and Keeper of the King's Secrets.Connect with Michelle Diener:WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Welcome to the sign up post for the 1st Annual Historical Holiday Blog Hop at Passages to the Past!

The winter holidays are my favorite time of year and what better way to celebrate than by hosting a blog hop! Blog hops are great ways to find new and awesome blogs, meet fellow bloggers, build your readership and give away fabulous prizes!

*This is my first blog hop, so please bear with me as I learn as I go :)

Blog Hop Instructions/Rules

- To sign up: please add your blog URL to the Linky List below and note in parenthesis after your blog name if your giveaway will be open to US, US/Can or Internationally.

*When the main Blog Hop post is live on December 10th at 12:01am EST you will need to add your link again, but this time you enter in the URL to your direct Blog Hop Giveaway post.

- The blog hop will run from December 10th to 17th. Posts must be up and accepting entries by 12:01am EST on the first day of the hop and end at midnight on the last day.

- Since this hop and the blog are focused on Historical Fiction, all giveaways must be either a historical novel, history/non-fiction or gift card. You are responsible for the shipping of your own giveaway.

By the end of the fifteenth century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched by its brutality and corruption, nowhere more than in Rome and in the Church. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy as Alexander VI, he is defined not just by his wealth or his passionate love for his illegitimate children, but by his blood: he is a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If the Borgias are to triumph, this charismatic, consummate politician with a huge appetite for life, women and power must use papacy and family to succeed.

His eldest son Cesare, a dazzlingly cold intelligence and an even colder soul, is his greatest - though increasingly unstable - weapon. Later immortalised in Machiavelli's The Prince, he provides the energy and the muscle. His daughter Lucrezia, beloved by both men, is the prime dynastic tool. Twelve years old when the novel opens, hers is a journey through three marriages: from childish innocence to painful experience, from pawn to political player.

Stripping away the myths around the Borgias, Blood & Beauty is a majestic novel that breathes life into this astonishing family and celebrates the raw power of history itself: compelling, complex and relentless.

Release Date: June 18, 2013Simon & Schuster484p{SYNOPSIS}For fans of Hilary Mantel, Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, Elizabeth Fremantle's first novel, "Queen's Gambit", is a riveting account of Katherine Parr, the Tudor queen who married four men and outlived three of them - including Henry VIII. Widowed for the second time aged thirty-one, Katherine is obliged to return to court but, suspicious of the aging Henry and those who surround him, she does so with reluctance. Nevertheless when she finds herself caught up in a passionate affair with the dashing and seductive Thomas Seymour, she believes she might finally be able to marry for love. But her presence at court has attracted the attentions of another...Captivated by her honesty and intelligence, Henry Tudor has his own plans for Katherine and no one is in the position to refuse a proposal from the king. With her charismatic lover dispatched to the continent, Katherine becomes Henry's sixth wife. Passionate about religious reform, and ever aware of the fates of his previous queens, she must draw upon all her instincts and intellect to navigate the treachery of the court. With the Catholic faction once more in the ascendency, reformers burned for heresy and those around the dying king vying for position in the new regime, her survival seems unlikely - and yet she has still not quite given up on love...Rich in atmosphere and period detail, and told through the eyes of Katherine and her young maid Dot, "Queen's Gambit" is the story of two very different women during a terrifying and turbulent time.

2013 is looking Historical Fiction-tastic...get ready to drool over some really fabulous releases due out next year!

Venus in Winterby Gillian BagwellRelease Date: July 2, 2013SYNOPSIS: Armed with nothing but her razor-sharp wit and fetching looks, twelve year- old Bess of Hardwick arrives at the glamorous court of King Henry VIII and is thrust into a treacherous world of politics and intrigue, a world she must quickly learn to navigate. Eventually she discovers that, for a woman of substance, the power and the possibilities are endless.

The Serpent and the Pearlby Kate QuinnRelease Date: August 6, 2013SYNOPSIS: Rome, 1492. The Holy City is drenched with blood and teeming with secrets. A pope lies dying and the throne of God is left vacant, a prize awarded only to the most virtuous—or the most ruthless. The Borgia family begins its legendary rise, chronicled by an innocent girl who finds herself drawn into their dangerous web.

Godivaby Nicole GallandRelease Date: July 2, 2013SYNOPSIS: Everyone knows the legend of Lady Godiva—the woman who (in)famously rode naked on horseback through Coventry to relieve her people from unfair taxation. But why would a lady of the court take it all off and risk everything, including husband, home, and well-being?

In this richly imagined retelling of an oft-told ancient tale, Nicole Galland gives us Lady Godiva in all her, um, glory, as she and her best friend (the Abbess Egdiva) and husband (Leofric, Earl of Mercia) embark on an adventure filled with courtly intrigue, deceit, back-stabbing, and romance.

From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, but those who really knew them saw their inner turmoil.

Committed to a Baltimore psychiatric hospital in 1932, Zelda vacillates between lucidity and madness as she fights to forge an identity independent of her famous husband. She discovers a sympathetic ear in her nurse Anna Howard, who finds herself drawn into the Fitzgerald’s tumultuous lives and wonders which of them is the true genius. But in taking greater emotional risks to save Zelda, Anna may end up paying a far higher price than she ever intended.

In this thoroughly researched, deeply moving novel, Erika Robuck explores the boundaries of female friendship, the complexity of marital devotion, and the sources of both art and madness.

The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodoraby Stephanie ThorntonRelease Date: July 2, 2013SYNOPSIS: A compelling debut about the early life of Theodora, who rose from obscurity to become Empress of Constantinople. In sixth-century Constantinople, one woman defied every convention and rose from a common theater tart to become empress of a great kingdom, the most powerful woman the Roman Empire would ever know. As she gained a back-door entry into the halls of power, surviving starvation, heartbreak, and betrayal along the way, she could never have predicted that one day she would find a great man to love and be handed a crown... or that she would be shrewd, bold, and strong enough to keep it. Theodora, the woman whose image was later immortalized in glittering mosaic, was a defiant, clever, conniving, flesh-and-blood woman full of sensuality and spirit whose story is as surprising as any ever told.

In 1861 London, Violet Morgan is struggling to establish a good reputation for the undertaking business that her husband has largely abandoned. She provides comfort for the grieving, advises them on funeral fashion and etiquette, and arranges funerals.

Unbeknownst to his wife, Graham, who has nursed a hatred of America since his grandfather soldiered for Great Britain in the War of 1812, becomes involved in a scheme to sell arms to the South. Meanwhile, Violet receives the commission of a lifetime: undertaking the funeral for a friend of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. But her position remains precarious, especially when Graham disappears and she begins investigating a series of deaths among the poor. And the closer she gets to the truth, the greater the danger for them both.

From the author of A Rose for the Crown and Daughter of York
comes another engrossing historical novel of the York family in the
Wars of the Roses, telling the fascinating story of the rise and fall of
the final and favorite mistress of Edward IV.

Jane Lambert, the
quick-witted and alluring daughter of a silk merchant, is twenty-two and
still unmarried. When Jane’s father finally finds her a match, she’s
married off to the dull, older silk merchant William Shore—but her heart
belongs to another. Marriage doesn’t stop Jane Shore from flirtation,
however, and when the king’s chamberlain and friend, Will Hastings,
comes to her husband’s shop, Will knows his King will find her
irresistible.

Edward IV has everything: power, majestic
bearing, superior military leadership, a sensual nature, and charisma.
And with Jane as his mistress, he also finds true happiness. But when
his hedonistic tendencies get in the way of being the strong leader
England needs, his life, as well as that of Jane Shore and Will
Hastings, hang in the balance.

This dramatic tale has
been an inspiration to poets and playwrights for 500 years, and told
through the unique perspective of a woman plucked from obscurity and
thrust into a life of notoriety, Royal Mistress is sure to enthrall today’s historical fiction lovers as well.

Thanks to Jenny Q from Let Them Read Books and Historical Editorial for posting about the release of God Save the King by Laura Purcell, a novel which Jenny edited! I already ordered a copy for my Kindle and can't wait to read it!

London, 1788. The calm order of Queen Charlotte’s court is shattered by screams. Her beloved husband, England’s King, has gone mad.

Left alone with thirteen children and a country at war, Charlotte must fight to hold her husband’s throne in a time of revolutionary fever. But it is not just the guillotine that Charlotte fears: it is the King himself.

Her six daughters are desperate to escape their palace asylum. Their only chance lies in a good marriage, but no Prince wants the daughter of a madman. They are forced to take love wherever they can find it – with devastating consequences.

The moving true story of George III’s madness and the women whose lives it destroyed.

The Tudor Conspiracy (Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles) by C.W. Gortner

US Release Date: July 16, 2013 UK Release Date: July 18, 2013{SYNOPSIS}Bristling with betrayal, death and intrigue, THE TUDOR CONSPIRACY is as
fast-paced and thrilling as THE TUDOR SECRET, its predecessor in the
ELIZABETH'S SPYMASTER series.

Winter 1554. Brendan Prescott,
spymaster to the Princess Elizabeth, has discovered that he is connected
to the Tudors by blood as well as allegiance. Though his secret is
known only by a few, it could be his downfall as he is called to London
to protect the princess.

UK Cover

Accompanied by his young squire Peregrine,
he reluctantly leaves his sweetheart Kate behind - but in the city he
discovers that no one is quite what they seem. What fate does Queen Mary
intend for her sister? Is Robert Dudley somehow manipulating the
princess, even though he is locked in the Tower? And should Brendan
trust the alluring Sybilla, Mary's lady-in-waiting, who professes to be
on his side?

As he tries to unravel the mysteries of the Tudor
court Brendan's life will be put in danger many times, and along the way
he learns more about his own past.